NEW DELHI: With the deadline of the third phase of digital addressable system (DAS) less than three months away, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has issued 27 new provisional licenses and three permanent licenses for multi system operators (MSOs) across India to operate in the DAS areas.

The new entrants are: (1) Manthan Broadband Services Pvt Ltd, which got the permanent licence for Kolkata Metropolitan under Phase I, for Howrah under Phase II and for Ranchi and all cities/towns in India under Phase III, (2) Saptak Digital, which received permanent licence for the entire West Bengal region, and (3) Shirdi Sai Digital Network for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana under Phase III & IV.

With this, the total number of MSOs that have obtained licences for DAS as on 30 September has gone up to 399.

According to the last list issued on 14 August, the Ministry had registered a total of 349 MSOs, of which 126 were provisional.

Of these 399 MSOs that have received licences for DAS, 226 have 10-year licences, while 173 are provisional since the MIB has still not received any formal communication of the Home Ministry’s decision to do away with security clearances for MSOs.

As of now, four MSOs - Kal Cables of Chennai, Digi Cable Network Pvt Ltd, Scod 18 Networking Pvt Ltd and SR Cable TV Pvt. Ltd. remain on the cancellation list.

Additionally, 11 MSOs, which had earlier been granted permanent licences were permitted to change their areas of operation